summer complaintn

1819Republican Compiler (Gettysburg PA) [1 Sept 2]/5 (newspaperarchive.com), We have been confidently assured . . that what is called the summer complaint may be cured with gun-powder—a tea spoon full pulverized, and taken with a little water.

1924DN 5.287 Cape Cod MA, A ‘summer complaint’ is not any disease which presents itself during the summer; instead it is a name applied by the natives to summer residents.

1926AmSp 2.82 ME, They [=summer residents] wouldn’t feel quite so superior if they knew that behind their backs they are “summer complaints.”

1975GouldME Lingo 282, Summer complaint. . . Transferring the term to the tourist and recreation clientele undoubtedly involves editorial comment. . . Actually, amongst well oriented summer people, the term is no longer wholly objectionable, because a lady summercating on Loud’s Island said, “You’ll have to ask somebody else for directions. I’m just a summer complaint and I don’t know.”

2004DARE File—Internetcoastal ME, The phrase ‘summer complaint’ used to be heard along the Maine coast throughout the summer—back in the 1950s and 1960s. . . Years ago you might have been sitting in a local diner minding your business and someone by the window would say—to no one in particular—“Secure the moorin’ lines here comes a gang of summah complaints.” Everyone in the diner knew right off . . that the place was about to be invaded by a raucous bunch of oddly dressed people ‘from away.’